What We're Reading – April 2019

Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado I've absolutely loved this collection of short stories, which floats between the weird and the queer, passing horror, black comedy and feminism along the way. Doubles and others are especially important: a wife enters her wife’s dream when they are apart; a girlfriend fades until her girlfriend accidentally falls through her in bed. Most noticeably, in the magnificent story ‘Especially Heinous’, detectives Stabler and Benson from Law & Order: SVU meet Abler and Henson, who always get to the crime scene first but do nothing about the beautiful murdered girls whose deaths fuel most episodes of Law & Order: SVU. Machado’s stories are direct, fast-paced, and funny, yet there’s always a slow-moving malevolence to them, a hidden seriousness, a careful confusion, and a sense of meaning that’s just out of reach for the characters. I can’t wait for her second book – a memoir – to be published later this year. Swithun Cooper, Research and Information Manager   Ordinary People, by Diana Evans Just shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize. Ordinary People is the story of two couples in the second flush of marriage, wondering about where their lives together are going and what compromises they’ll have to make along the way. It’s also a love-letter to London, and to the music of John Legend. I’m enjoying Diana Evans’ lyrical writing style and in depth exploration of her characters inner lives, their frustrations and complex... Continue reading at 'British Council global'

[ British Council global | 2019-04-11 08:49:28 UTC ]

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Silicon Valley Hustling: An Interview with Anna Wiener

Wiener’s memoir “Uncanny Valley” maps her coming-of-age during the Valley’s 2010s rush, and the industry’s own loss of innocence. Continue reading at The Paris Review

[ The Paris Review | 2020-01-09 16:44:48 UTC ]
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PW Picks: Books of the Week, Jan. 12, 2020

This week, we highlight a powerful and unsettling debut by Ani Katz; a cleverly crafted memoir by Javier Cercas; a tangled, riveting parable of the modern surveillance state by Joanna Kavenna; and more Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-01-09 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The White House wages war on transparency: Iran edition

In the days since the US military killed Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s fêted top security official, Iran’s leaders have repeatedly threatened retaliation. Yesterday, they volleyed ballistic missiles at two bases that house US troops in Iraq. No casualties were reported. On Twitter, Mohammad Javad... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-01-08 13:07:07 UTC ]
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Deborah Orr | 'The more humble my beginnings, the more I appeared to have achieved'

Motherwell, the incisive memoir by Deborah Orr, unpicks the complexities of familial relationships. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-08 09:25:51 UTC ]
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Elizabeth Wurtzel, 'Prozac Nation' Author And Memoirist, Dead At 52

Wurtzel, who had breast cancer, gave new breath to the memoir and was a new voice for those struggling with clinical depression and addiction. Continue reading at HuffPost

[ HuffPost | 2020-01-07 21:47:12 UTC ]
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Elizabeth Wurtzel, journalist and author of Prozac Nation, dead at 52

Author of bestselling memoir about clinical depression, which made her ‘a hashtag before there was Twitter’, died from metastatic breast cancer Elizabeth Wurtzel, journalist and author of bestselling memoir Prozac Nation, has died at the age of 52.Writer David Samuels, Wurtzel’s friend since... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-01-07 16:51:54 UTC ]
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A Complete Guide to the Handful of Proper Nouns Anna Wiener Uses in Uncanny Valley

One of the first things you notice about Wiener’s Silicon Valley memoir is her elegant, strategic elision. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2020-01-07 13:30:02 UTC ]
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Kiley Reid’s Sharp First Novel About Race, Careers, and Parenthood

Such a Fun Age is Franzenesque in its interest in how we live now—but in a quieter register. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2020-01-07 12:30:00 UTC ]
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Lemn Sissay's memoir shortlisted for Slightly Foxed Best Biography Prize

Lemn Sissay’s account of his childhood in care My Name is Why (Canongate) has been shortlisted for the 2019 Slightly Foxed Best Biography Prize along with Francesca Segal’s story of sitting "vigil" for her premature twins, Mother Ship (Chatto & Windus). Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-06 22:27:54 UTC ]
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Collins and Coe triumph at Costa Book Awards 2019

Sara Collins has won the Costa First Novel Award for her gothic romance, The Confessions of Frannie Langton (Viking), in a stellar year for début authors after three out of the five award categories were won by first-time writers.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

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A Tech Insider Stylishly Chronicles Her Industry’s ‘Uncanny Valley’

Anna Wiener’s memoir captures the dreams, delusions and general absurdity of Silicon Valley in indelible detail. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-01-03 10:00:08 UTC ]
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Virago pre-empts Chloé Cooper Jones' memoir

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-03 01:28:14 UTC ]
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Yearning for Transcendence

TWO CULTS FEATURE in Sands Hall’s memoir Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology, as the author jokes to an old friend in its early pages. There’s L. Ron Hubbard’s “religion,” of course, which ensnares Hall — via a charismatic Scientologist boyfriend — after she moves to Los Angeles in 1980 to... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-12-31 20:00:14 UTC ]
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“Still Evolving”: A Conversation with Staceyann Chin

STACEYANN CHIN MADE a name for herself performing poetry on Russell Simmons’s Def Poetry Jam, but her work extends beyond her electrifying spoken-word performances. She is a civil rights activist and teacher, published a critically acclaimed memoir in 2009 called The Other Side of Paradise,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-12-29 18:00:18 UTC ]
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Tremain, Kay, Shrigley in New Year's Honours

Novelist Rose Tremain has been made a Dame in the New Year's Honours list. Meanwhile poet and novelist Jackie Kay, the Scots Makar, receives a CBE. Sir Elton John, author of autumn memoir Me (Macmillan), is made a Companion of Honour. Among those receiving OBEs are artist and author David... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-27 17:04:32 UTC ]
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‘Just Mercy’ Review: Echoes of Jim Crow on Alabama’s Death Row

Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan star in an adaptation of a memoir by the civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-12-24 19:45:28 UTC ]
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Four audiobooks to keep you listening into the new year

The best audiobooks of December 2019 include the latest John le Carré spy novel and a stirring memoir by a Philippine immigrant. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-12-20 20:54:02 UTC ]
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Four audiobooks to keep you listening into the new year

The best audiobooks of December 2019 include the latest John le Carré spy novel and a stirring memoir by a Philippine immigrant. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-12-20 20:54:02 UTC ]
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Four audiobooks to keep you listening into the new year

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-12-20 20:54:02 UTC ]
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Edward Snowden’s profits from memoir must go to US government, judge rules

Court says state is entitled to any profits from Permanent Record because its publication breached non-disclosure agreementsEdward Snowden is not entitled to the profits from his memoir Permanent Record, and any money made must go to the US government, a judge has ruled.Permanent Record, in... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-12-20 13:20:57 UTC ]
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